Advice - a mediterranean cruise

[grottyrotty]

We have always said that a cruise doesn't really appeal to us. I suppose we have some pretty ingrained sterotypical ideas of a holiday afloat which I think are probably not so true these days:
- we don't like the idea of "dressing for dinner" ie being overly formal
- we like to come and go as we please and eat when we're hungry
- we don't like the idea of sharing a table with strangers at meal times
- I suppose we like to keep to ourselves and don't want to "buddy up" with others for the duration of the holiday (pretty antisocial really )

That's why a villa holiday suits us, rather than a hotel holiday

So why are we now questioning ourselves regarding a cruise?

Basically we'd love to visit Italy, but can't decide where to go to. I suggested that we do a cruise around Italy for 7 - 10 days to see several places, fully expecting DH to shoot the idea down before it got any further. Surprisingly he told me to "look into it"

So of course, my first port of call is the Dibb

Anyone really not enjoyed a holiday afloat and, if not, why not?

Anyone been on a cruise to Italian cities? If so would you recommend it, and which cruise line did you holiday with?

May thanks

Deb

[dippiedawnie]

We were the same as you but ended up doing the 7 night med cruise with Disney and loved it. We too love Italy so enjoyed the stops there. We did Rome and Pompeii and Portofino-all were great. We booked to do a longer cruise the year after which was also going Sorento and Venis but our DS got ill 2 days before hand and need an op so we couldn't go. We were gutted. They are not cheap options but great to do. We will do another one eventually as I am determined to get to Venis 😀

[welshwiz]

Can't address all your concerns apart from saying our views are pretty similar to yours and we love cruising and in particular NCL seem like a good fit for your needs with very laid back anytime dining and the least dressy along with maybe Carnival. We don't dress up much on any cruise these days although most have been sailing from the US. We've been on NCL/RCCL/Carnival/P&O/Princess/MSC/Costa and liked all of them. Also love every part of Italy we've been too for the scenery, food, culture but only been to Genoa and Savona on cruise as other ports on the European itineraries we've been on have been Spain/France but been to Rome (my all time favourite city) and Venice, Milan/Bergamo, and the lakes and loved every place we've visited.

MSC and Costa and I think RCCL do some itineraries with more Italian ports and MSC have new ships coming out so worth looking at those and again you can select their version of anytime dining if you opt for the Aurea experience.

We thought we'd hate but now we're addicted to cruising and we've learned along the way were we prefer our cabin to be located and what grade we're happy with we've but each time it's just taught us how to tweak the next booking a little bit better and we keep booking and keep sailing and keeping enjoying cruising our way, that's the great thing about cruising there's so much for everyone to enjoy and so much space on the larger ships for you to find your own niche!

Hope you manage to find a cruise that's just right for you!

[Jan]

A piece of advice, if I may - don't go with Royal Caribbean! A cruise we took with them to the Canaries last autumn could only be described as a cheap holiday camp at sea! I suppose "you get what you pay for" as the saying goes.

Most, if not all, cruise ships have a dining room which is where formal dress is required (not not always followed) on one, two or three nights, depending the length of the cruise, and a casual buffet style restaurant where formal attire is not usually required. Shorts etc. are usually frowned on for evening meals anywhere. Most ships have speciality restaurants, (Asian, Italian etc) for which there is an additional fee, per person. A lot of cruise lines have flexible and fixed dining in the dining room but you can eat almost all day and evening the buffet restaurant. There is no rule that you have to share a table in any venue. In fact, we started to ask for a table for two when we eat in the dining room because, whilst we have shared tables with some nice people, we have also shared with some odd people. However, sharing tables does not mean we had to become bosom buddies with others.

We have sailed around Italy and loved it. We were with Royal Caribbean before they starting cost cutting. Our last cruise with them put DH off cruising altogether, although I would like to try Holland America again. Their prices seem to indicate that they have not tried to do cost-cutting to the same extent as RC.

I would recommend cruisecritic but stay on the US site when asked. It is much the same format as the Dibb with enormous amounts of information etc.

[stecee]

I would second what a pp has said, NCL are a lot more relaxed about getting dressed up for meals. They don't have any formal nights as such, you do get people dressing in suits etc, but the majority dress smart casual in the main dining room.
If you want to sit on your own for meals, that's fine, you are not forced to sit with anyone, though if there is just the two of you, the tables are quite close together.
Just a word of warning, cruising is very addictive, be prepared to get hooked

[danisleigh]

I agree about NCL, it’s very casual with no set dining times and you don’t sit with anyone else. They do t have formal nights they just have ‘dress up or not’ night and in my experience most choose not to!

[Gill H]

We have just got back from our first ever cruise, 7 nights round the Med on the Disney Magic. Utterly wonderful and would love to go again.

Most of the things you mention are optional. Yes, there is a formal night and a semi-formal night. In practice, 'formal' means anything from full-on evening dress to smart trousers/shirt and skirt/blouse. Frankly, as long as you're not in ripped jeans or a swimming cozzy, you're fine. But if you really wanted to avoid that night, you could eat in Cabanas buffet and wear what you want.

Semi-formal - to be honest I didn't notice any difference from other nights.

There's also pirate night of course! Again, dressing up is optional. Peter had a striped t-shirt and a shirt with anchors on which he wore with black jeans. I wore a black flowered skirt and a black 'wench type' blouse which I'd sewn plastic coins round the neck of.

As for table mates, you can ask for a table on your own if you like. Lots of people do. Our tablemates didn't turn up the first night as they had gone to Palo (the upscale restaurant which costs an extra $30 per person and is absolutely phenomenal). On the second night, they turned up, but explained that they had booked lots of long excursions and therefore were going to change to the later dinner seating. So we were left on our own. But the table next to us - three retired American couples - invited us to sit with them if we wanted, and they adopted us from then on! But if you wanted to sit on your own, no one thinks that's strange.

Dinner is two seatings, you can ask for early or late. However, if you wanted you could eat at Cabana's any time instead. You would really miss out though, the restaurants are amazing. You eat in one of the three restaurants every night, on a rotation, and your tablemates (if you have them) and servers come with you. So you get to know your servers and they know your preferences.

The shows are on twice a night so whichever dinner seating you are on, you can still see the shows and do all the late night stuff - which is fab! Everything from a relaxed piano bar to karaoke and a slightly risque Mr & Mrs style game show. But again, all this is optional, if you just want to be by yourselves there's plenty of opportunity.

As for excursions, Disney offer their own (which are convenient but quite pricey) or you can book with another company or DIY. You do need to make sure you get back to the ship in plenty of time though.

We made our own way to Herculaneum on a HOHO bus and had a look round Naples (in torrential rain!) We didn't bother with Rome - it's almost 2 hours on the coach each way, and we didn't want to try cramming Rome into 6 hours. To be honest we could do Rome off season when it's quieter and cooler, and spend several days there, much cheaper than we could go on a cruise. So instead we enjoyed a quiet ship.

We took the Disney excursion to Pisa - about 30 minutes on a coach, then a little train through the cobbled streets (think 'Kilimanjaro Safari' and about as bumpy!) and spent a few hours seeing the sights.

We were supposed to go to Villefranche, where we had intended to just amble round the town. But the high winds meant the tender boats wouldn't run, so instead they changed the itinerary and we had a sea day. The next day we went to Marseille instead, and had a nice wander round the port.

There are longer itineraries which take in more ports, too.

We were completely blown away by the ship. It really has the feel of 1930s luxury liners (with the added bonus of being able to bump into Cinderella, Stitch and even Thor!)

Definitely worth considering.

[KarenG]

We've cruised with DCL twice and NCL once. Loved DCL, but NCL was excellent too (and as others have said, it sounds like a good fit for you with freestyle dining etc).

The key for me is the price point - the NCL cruise we took was less than half the price of DCL (and that was in a balcony room, DCL was inside). While I love DCL I'm not prepared to pay double.

[danisleigh]

I agree...we cruised DCL last year thanks to the make a wish foundation organising it for my son and it blew us away too but the prices compared to what we can get with other cruise lines are crazy. We would love to cruise DCL again one day as it is amazing but last year we cruised on the NCL Epic around canaries over school easter holidays for £1450 for thre if us in a balcony cabin including drinks packages and upgraded dining... prices like that are hard to turn down!

[jas72]

Originally Posted by Jan

A piece of advice, if I may - don't go with Royal Caribbean! A cruise we took with them to the Canaries last autumn could only be described as a cheap holiday camp at sea! I suppose "you get what you pay for" as the saying goes.

I would recommend cruisecritic but stay on the US site when asked. It is much the same format as the Dibb with enormous amounts of information etc.

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We had a fantastic time for our first cruise with RC I've read a lot of people complaining that it's not what it used to be but we had no reference point and it was fine for us.

So much so we've booked again. Perhaps we are the "cheap holiday camp" type of people which is why we enjoyed it so much.

The cruise however was anything but cheap. We choose RC because most of our friends who have been on many cruises said it was the best.

There are many different companies out there but you'll have a great time no matter what line you are on. I too didn't think we were the "cruise" types but I really enjoyed it the entertainment was spot on and even though the ship was huge you could always find a quiet spot to relax and enjoy the ship for some reason the holiday felt much longer on board but in a positive way.

Best of luck looking but unlike Disney there isn't too much to plan so don't stress too much about it.